Getting A Federal Job

Federal jobs are listed by Federal Government agencies in vacancy announcements published in various journals, web sites, directories, databases, mailing lists and hotlines.

Each Federal job vacancy should include;

• the announcement number
  
• the description of the position
  
• the requirements
  
• the deadline to apply
  
• the series/grade
  
• the salary range
  
• the promotion potential
  
• the basis for rating
  
• application guidelines such as format (OF 612, resume, etc..), resume guidelines and KSA questions.
  

The Federal Government hiring process being pretty strict, not respecting the rules and deadlines listed in the vacancy will get you irremediably disqualified, even if you are the most qualified candidate.

Federal Job Sites

While it is recommended to check government agencies' websites for more information, here are a few sites that list vacancies for Federal jobs:

• USAJobs
  
• FedWorld
  
• America's Job Bank
  
• NTIS
  
• StudentJobs
  

Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are the basic requirements needed to perform a job and are demonstrated through your qualifying experience, education, or training via a statement format versus providing answers to questions.

KSA's distinguish between best qualified and basically qualified applicants. As a federal job candidate, you should address each KSA statement as thoroughly as possible, paying close attention to detail.

A vacancy announcement will usually list the KSAs in terms of "specialized experience" requirements. You will be evaluated against each KSA to see if you qualify. You must show either the relevant education requirements or one year of experience that shows the KSA requirements.

An automated scanning software used to ease and improve the Federal recruitment process both for the recruiters and the applicants, Resumix is now the hiring tool of choice for agencies such as the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and the Department of Commerce.

What it means for applicants is that they will have to use an online resume builder to submit their information, which will not only reduce the number of application forms but also eliminate the need for separate KSA answers, in some cases.

Whether they make the cut or not, the scanned resumes will be added to a database, giving to job seekers the option to use the same Resumix resume to apply to other openings within the agency, thanks to the easy self-nomination process.

However, applicants interested in applying to different government agencies will need to go through different online Resumix builders, as requirements slightly vary from one agency to the other: for example the Army Resumix is restricted to 3 pages while the Navy Resumix allows 5 pages.

Because Resumix matches the skills of the applicants against the skills listed in the announcement to identify the best candidates, your Federal Resumix resume must include all the relevant keywords, otherwise your application won't even be seen by the hiring manager.

Much faster than a manual ranking of candidates, Resumix only replaces human involvement in the first step of the hiring process, since resumes extracted from the database will be reviewed by supervisors before proceeding with interviews.

The federal government uses a common system to classify jobs according to agency. The classification system follows the General Schedule (GS) which assigns every job a grade level from 1 to 15 which is relevant to the minimum level of education and work experience that applicants are required to have.

After gaining additional work experience and or education, federal workers often qulify for higher GS level. So for example, 1 year of experience related to the job you are applying to may raise your garde by one GS level in most clerical and technician positions. However, in admininstrative, professional, and scientific positions, GS level increase generall in increments of 2 years until you reach a GS-12. After that, GS levels increase one level at a time.

The table below show GS levels for entry-level workers with differing amounts of education and work experience:

GS-1 = No high school diploma

GS-2 = High School Diploma (GS-3 for clerk- steno positions)

GS-3 = 1 yr. of full time study after High School

GS-4 = Associate Degree or 2 years of full time study after high school

GS-5 or GS-7 = Bachelor's Degree or 4 years of full time study after high school

GS-7 = Bachelor's Degree plus 1 year of full time graduate study

GS-9 = Master's degree for 2 years of full time graduate study. Some positions may require you to have a law degree (J.D. or LL.B.)

GS-11 = Ph.D. or equivalent doctorate or advanced law degree (LL.M.)

OVERWORKED I have found out the real reason why I'm tired, because I'm overworked! The population of this country is 237 million: 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work. Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government. This leaves 19 million to do the work. 4 million are in the armed forces, which leaves 15 million to do the work. Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for the city and state government and that leaves 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 people in hospitals so that leaves 12,000 to do the work. Now there are 11,998 people in prison. That leaves 2 people to do the work, You and Me...
AND YOU'RE SITTING THERE SCREWING AROUND ON MY JOKE PAGE!

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